AI Summit Budapest 2025

Nate Havens

Composer, Producer

Nathaniel Philip’s commitment to making good art supersedes his need for food and water.

As committed to writing a catchy hook as he is making tangible life’s non-conveyable beauty, at age 21 nathaniel philip has released two albums, performed live for multiple years and started his own digital music venue. With an unflinching dedication to sacrifice more than he should to share his signature gut-wrenching songwriting, nathaniel philip is a voracious artist committed to putting his most honest and vulnerable self into everything he does.

Having grown up in a family very supportive of his creativity, it did not take long for nathaniel to realize his passion for making things. Moving from Lego to making his own video games, thirteen year old nathaniel eventually started writing music the same reason he always started doing something- because he wanted to make art as good as the artists he idolized on YouTube. Starting small, making soundtracks for his video games, he eventually began writing music for its own sake. As he grew from tween to teen, songs went from being written and recorded in a few hours to being pored over for days and weeks at a time.
School often taking up the time he wished he could spend creating, in a weird way COVID granted his wish for more time to create. And with that combination of isolation from the outside world, being trapped in a house with his family at a time he deeply craved peer connection and overthinking, he wrote his debut album: “I’ll Die Before the Rest of Me Changes''

A dystopian, family drama, art-pop album, which catalogs the coming of age of a child and his father on a journey of self-discovery in an increasingly surreal and isolating digital age. Having played drums for eight years and guitar for four, nathaniel wrote and played every instrument in addition to mixing and mastering it. At some points even modifying children’s toys to craft the exacting soundscape he envisioned for the album.

After finishing the album nathaniel moved to the Rutgers area- writing songs and being involved with its vibrant underground basement show scene. There he, his roommate and the mutual friend that introduced them formed the band Sloth. After many heated jam sessions, Nate eventually came to co-write and co-produce his second album.The debut Thank You, Sire! An eclectic mix of oddball blues songs detailing in jokes and personal stories told through a satirical, medieval lens. You may not always know exactly what Sloth is singing about, but you sure as hell will feel it.

Nathaniel has also been a leading fixture in the Rutgers underground music scene. Playing both solo and with his band, “The nathaniel philip Emulsion” (a play on the Jimi Hendrix Experience) in and around Rutgers, in addition to basement shows at Williams College, house shows in Brooklyn and most recently at PIANOS in Manhattan.

Nathaniel is also the co-founder, co-producer and audio engineer of The Nest, ‘New Brunswick’s premiere digital venue’. The Nest records live sets of tristate area bands in a manner akin to NPR’s Tiny Desk. What started as an empty attic and a dream is now a three person operation on track to become profitable within seven months of its starting.

Above all else, nathaniel continues to vie for making art he’s passionate about, and expressing himself in any wayy that feels right. In every way looking to be a voice for the things people cannot find the words to express, whether that be through his recorded catalog or performing for as many people as will listen.